As you all know Christmas has been my favourite holiday ever since I was a small child. Each year I have gone all out to decorate, to bake, to send out a huge number of Christmas cards.
I have always maintained the tradition of my childhood, celebrating St. Nicholas Day on the 6th of December, having an Advent wreath, decorating the house but not putting up the tree until Christmas Eve and taking everything down on the 12th day of Christmas.

Since I have lived in different countries, I added a few touches to commemorate times spent in them. As the family grew, I made sure to pass the traditions down to my kids and grandkids. They all received Advent calendars well into their teens.

Three of my granddaughters and one grandson began helping me with the baking of favourite cakes and cookies and continued to do so until I retired to Grenada. When we left, the girls took over some of my recipe books.

When we settled in in Grenada, I asked a friend to get me a Christmas tree and ship it down here. Since we packed up and brought down all the ornaments and house decorations, the tradition continued here, including the baking. The latter needed some adjustments as the tropical climate is not kind to some of the cookies, baked with lots of butter.
 
When family came down to visit, all was as it had been in Chicago. But this year, the grinch showed up. 

We had a nightmare of a termite infestation, with a huge nest the size of a watermelon in the storage room. We had to remove everything from the shelves and floor in preparation for the exterminators. As we unpacked boxes, we discovered that the termites had gotten inside the boxes and destroyed 2/3rds of all our Christmas decorations. 

As St. Nicholas day drew near, I realized that what was left would barely allow us to decorate. With the realization came a decision to get rid of our 7-foot Christmas tree and the antique ornaments. The small tree we had left would suffice. As for baking, the only thing I managed to bake was the traditional Christmas fruit cake.

By now all Christmas spirit was gone. I just could not get into it, no matter how hard I tried. The only concession was baking a duck Hungarian style for our Christmas day dinner and taking down  a few of my Christmas dishes.

The one bright spot is that my big Christmas tree and the ornaments found a happy home with a dear friend. Bah humbug, next year has to be better. 

As I have for the past 9 years, since retiring to Grenada, I sent out the invitations for my annual American Thanksgiving dinner. About a week later, upon reflection, I realized that to pull off the dinner, was a virtual impossibility. There were just too many things needing my attention. Not least among them the fact that friends, a family of 5 were arriving the day before, a Grenada Green Group educational exhibit, of which I was in charge, happening 3 days before. No possible way to do a complete Thanksgiving dinner, so I reluctantly cancelled it.

My friends arrived and asked what we were doing for Thanksgiving. I told them I couldn’t do anything, no time. They suggested not to stress, we could go to a restaurant for a Thanksgiving dinner. I had to tell them that Grenada did not celebrate in the American tradition and we would not have the traditional meal in a restaurant. Friend Kate, ever helpful said, “no worries, we’ll help you prepare the   meal, let’s just buy the turkey”. Easier said than done. I have a source for fabulous local turkey, so I called the lady who had previously supplied me  with the turkey, apologized for yet again changing my mind and asked for a small bird. She graciously agreed to do so.

When the turkey arrived, I nearly fell over. She had sent me a 31lb TURKEY!!
We wrestled the beast home and then tried to figure out how to get it into the oven. No way was it going to fit, though my oven is large, nor could we have lifted it out, had it fit. We solved the problem by cutting off the back, the legs and thighs and the wings. We put the breast into one roasting bag, the legs and thighs into another and put the rest in the freezer.
 
My guests in the meantime had planned activities. The kids had to study, they needed to sleep in, one was not feeling well, so I did a simplified version of the whole dinner.
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In the end, there were 8 of us. We had a wonderful, relaxed meal but now we will have to eat turkey for the next 2 years, to finish the beast. As the saying goes, “When you’re handed lemons, make lemonade”